Turkey's first offshore wind power plant (WPP) project is expected to receive bids from several countries.

Mustafa Serdar Ataseven, chairman of the Turkish Wind Energy Association (TWEA), said the 200-megawatt (MW) offshore project will attract an investment of $3 billion.

He further added that 60 percent of the turbine equipment and 80 percent of the engineers in the project will be local.

Ataseven said that several countries, including Germany, Denmark, India, China, South Korea and Japan, are interested in the offshore WPP.

The TWEA chairman came together with a group of journalists in İzmir, the wind capital of Turkey, to disclose the wind capacity report for the first half of the year.

He recalled that the regulation on Turkey's first offshore wind power plant project, announced by Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak during his term as the energy and natural resources minister, was published in the Official Gazette.

He said the bidding process will end on Oct. 23 and added that Saros, Gelibolu-Şarköy and Kıyıköy were the candidate regions for the project.

"The first stage will have a capacity of 840 MW and the rest will be completed in 72 months. Turbine unit power will be at least 6 MW because the plant will utilize the latest technologies.

"Around 60 percent of the turbine equipment will be domestic, and the employment rate of local engineers are required to be 80 percent. For the project, which will have a license period of 30 years, $100 million guarantee letter will be requested for participation," he said.

According to TWEA's six-month wind statistics for this year, Turkey's total wind power exceeded 7,000 MW. The report shows that wind investments are accelerating in the southeastern Anatolia and eastern Anatolia regions, identified as secondary wind fields. The report also stated that the installed wind power capacity in the first six months of this year stood at 140 MW.

Despite a decrease in the number of power plants operating in wind energy compared to the same period of last year, an increase was also observed in the number of plants under construction.

According to the report, 38.91 percent of the wind power plants in operation are located in the Aegean, 33.92 percent in the Marmara Sea, 13.31 percent in the Mediterranean Sea and 8.69 percent in the central Anatolia region. It is also noted that there is an increase in the plants commissioned in the Black Sea and southeastern Anatolia region.

The production capacity of operational WPPs rose from 552 MW to 885 MW in 2018, the report added.

"Akfen Enerji, which is prepared to build a 243 MW project in Çanakkale and Denizli, stands out among 29 projects. The 155 MW power plant to be established by Sancak Energy in Konya will be an important investment for the province. Ağaoğlu's 124 MW project in Balikesir comes third," he said.